Why Delhi must engage with the many Americas

Why in the News

The Democratic Party’s sweeping victory in the United States (U.S.) midterm elections gives India immediate and long term tasks with its most important and comprehensive partner. Delhi must keep working with the Trump administration now, and over time build friends across America’s many centres of power rather than follow its party mood swings.

What does the midterm result change for India?

1. Midterm verdict: The Democratic win is part of the normal swing of American politics. It does not guarantee the party the 2028 presidency or the next Congress.
2. Generational change: Trump and familiar Democratic figures, the Clintons, Obama and Biden, are giving way to a new generation from a more diverse America.
3. Progressive shock: India was surprised by the power of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement on the right. It must now prepare for similar shocks from progressive forces among Democrats.
4. The takeaway: Delhi cannot read America through one party or one election, because its political landscape keeps changing.

What should Delhi do immediately?

1. Engage the Trump administration: Trump stays in office for more than two years and keeps considerable authority over foreign policy until his last day.
2. Pending trade deal: India should wrap up the long pending bilateral trade agreement and advance cooperation in energy, defence and technology.
3. Summit opportunities: The Prime Minister could meet Trump at the East Asia Summit in Manila this month and the G20 summit in Miami in December, to consolidate ties after a turbulent period.
4. Enduring need: India needs the partnership for economic transformation, technological modernisation and regional security.

What is the threefold long term challenge?

1. Partisan reading of America: India must look at America’s deep structures, not party labels (Republicans “good”, Democrats “bad”, or the reverse), and stop treating every Washington remark as a turning point.
2. End of complacency: India must discard the assumption that Washington needs Delhi more than India needs America. Trump’s second term shattered that assumption.
3. The 1990s and 2000s playbook: India must return to the diplomacy that won friends across Congress, business, universities, think tanks and the Indian diaspora, not only between presidents and prime ministers.
4. Civil nuclear agreement, 2008: That effort culminated in the India U.S. civil nuclear agreement, backed by the White House and both parties in Congress. Delhi engaged sceptics instead of assuming its importance would win.

Why must Delhi look beyond the two parties?

1. Many centres of influence: America’s federal structure, powerful legislature, corporations, universities, media and civic organisations all shape policy. Neither party has a settled ideological identity.
2. Divided Republicans: Trump’s nationalist movement challenged the party’s support for free trade, immigration and alliances. It remains split among economic nationalists, libertarians, religious conservatives and opponents of endless wars.
3. Changing Democrats: Progressives challenge party leaders on inequality, corporate power, defence spending and foreign policy, including Israel and military intervention.
4. Cross party currents: Anti war movements on the left share ground with isolationists on the right, and the midterm results will sharpen these debates.

Challenges

1. Lost progressive friends: India has lost friends among American progressives, whose weight grows with changing demographics and a revived socialist tradition.
2. Comfortable networks: Delhi has stayed within established networks of Americans sympathetic to India.
3. Reliance on leaders: Ties resting on personal chemistry between leaders do not survive political change.
4. Thin party outreach: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) run their own outreach, but the Congress party lacks structured engagement.

Way Forward

1. Reconnect with progressives: Indian diplomacy should make a special effort to rebuild links with the American left.
2. Engage critics directly: Delhi should engage American critics on trade, immigration, human rights and Russia, not only sympathetic voices.
3. Whole of society outreach: Indian political parties, civil society and business should deepen engagement with their American counterparts.
4. Beyond the diaspora: Indian parties should reach past the diaspora to the wider forces shaping American politics.

Conclusion

India’s ties with the U.S. now depend less on who holds the White House than on how many American constituencies count Delhi as a friend. Whether Delhi builds that durable base before the next swing in American politics is the test to watch.

Back2Basics: U.S. midterm elections

1. Timing: They are held in November, two years into a President’s four year term.
2. Seats at stake: All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate’s 100 seats.
3. Why they matter: The result decides which party controls Congress, which passes laws and budgets; the Senate also approves treaties.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2019, GS2, 10 marks] ‘The time has come for India and Japan to build a strong contemporary relationship, one involving global and strategic partnership that will have a great significance for Asia and the world as a whole.’ Comment.”